'\" t
.\"     Title: CREATE ROLE
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.75.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2011-12-01
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 9.1.2 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 9.1.2
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "CREATE ROLE" "7" "2011-12-01" "PostgreSQL 9.1.2" "PostgreSQL 9.1.2 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
CREATE_ROLE \- define a new database role
.\" CREATE ROLE
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
CREATE ROLE \fIname\fR [ [ WITH ] \fIoption\fR [ \&.\&.\&. ] ]

where \fIoption\fR can be:

      SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
    | CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
    | CREATEROLE | NOCREATEROLE
    | CREATEUSER | NOCREATEUSER
    | INHERIT | NOINHERIT
    | LOGIN | NOLOGIN
    | REPLICATION | NOREPLICATION
    | CONNECTION LIMIT \fIconnlimit\fR
    | [ ENCRYPTED | UNENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD \*(Aq\fIpassword\fR\*(Aq
    | VALID UNTIL \*(Aq\fItimestamp\fR\*(Aq
    | IN ROLE \fIrole_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    | IN GROUP \fIrole_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    | ROLE \fIrole_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    | ADMIN \fIrole_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    | USER \fIrole_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    | SYSID \fIuid\fR
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP

CREATE ROLE
adds a new role to a
PostgreSQL
database cluster\&. A role is an entity that can own database objects and have database privileges; a role can be considered a
\(lquser\(rq, a
\(lqgroup\(rq, or both depending on how it is used\&. Refer to
Chapter 20, Database Roles, in the documentation
and
Chapter 19, Client Authentication, in the documentation
for information about managing users and authentication\&. You must have
CREATEROLE
privilege or be a database superuser to use this command\&.
.PP
Note that roles are defined at the database cluster level, and so are valid in all databases in the cluster\&.
.SH "PARAMETERS"
.PP
\fIname\fR
.RS 4
The name of the new role\&.
.RE
.PP
SUPERUSER, NOSUPERUSER
.RS 4
These clauses determine whether the new role is a
\(lqsuperuser\(rq, who can override all access restrictions within the database\&. Superuser status is dangerous and should be used only when really needed\&. You must yourself be a superuser to create a new superuser\&. If not specified,
NOSUPERUSER
is the default\&.
.RE
.PP
CREATEDB, NOCREATEDB
.RS 4
These clauses define a role\*(Aqs ability to create databases\&. If
CREATEDB
is specified, the role being defined will be allowed to create new databases\&. Specifying
NOCREATEDB
will deny a role the ability to create databases\&. If not specified,
NOCREATEDB
is the default\&.
.RE
.PP
CREATEROLE, NOCREATEROLE
.RS 4
These clauses determine whether a role will be permitted to create new roles (that is, execute
CREATE ROLE)\&. A role with
CREATEROLE
privilege can also alter and drop other roles\&. If not specified,
NOCREATEROLE
is the default\&.
.RE
.PP
CREATEUSER, NOCREATEUSER
.RS 4
These clauses are an obsolete, but still accepted, spelling of
SUPERUSER
and
NOSUPERUSER\&. Note that they are
\fInot\fR
equivalent to
CREATEROLE
as one might naively expect!
.RE
.PP
INHERIT, NOINHERIT
.RS 4
These clauses determine whether a role
\(lqinherits\(rq
the privileges of roles it is a member of\&. A role with the
INHERIT
attribute can automatically use whatever database privileges have been granted to all roles it is directly or indirectly a member of\&. Without
INHERIT, membership in another role only grants the ability to
SET ROLE
to that other role; the privileges of the other role are only available after having done so\&. If not specified,
INHERIT
is the default\&.
.RE
.PP
LOGIN, NOLOGIN
.RS 4
These clauses determine whether a role is allowed to log in; that is, whether the role can be given as the initial session authorization name during client connection\&. A role having the
LOGIN
attribute can be thought of as a user\&. Roles without this attribute are useful for managing database privileges, but are not users in the usual sense of the word\&. If not specified,
NOLOGIN
is the default, except when
CREATE ROLE
is invoked through its alternative spelling
CREATE USER\&.
.RE
.PP
REPLICATION, NOREPLICATION
.RS 4
These clauses determine whether a role is allowed to initiate streaming replication or put the system in and out of backup mode\&. A role having the
REPLICATION
attribute is a very highly privileged role, and should only be used on roles actually used for replication\&. If not specified,
NOREPLICATION
is the default for all roles except superusers\&.
.RE
.PP
CONNECTION LIMIT \fIconnlimit\fR
.RS 4
If role can log in, this specifies how many concurrent connections the role can make\&. \-1 (the default) means no limit\&.
.RE
.PP
PASSWORD \fIpassword\fR
.RS 4
Sets the role\*(Aqs password\&. (A password is only of use for roles having the
LOGIN
attribute, but you can nonetheless define one for roles without it\&.) If you do not plan to use password authentication you can omit this option\&. If no password is specified, the password will be set to null and password authentication will always fail for that user\&. A null password can optionally be written explicitly as
PASSWORD NULL\&.
.RE
.PP
ENCRYPTED, UNENCRYPTED
.RS 4
These key words control whether the password is stored encrypted in the system catalogs\&. (If neither is specified, the default behavior is determined by the configuration parameter
password_encryption\&.) If the presented password string is already in MD5\-encrypted format, then it is stored encrypted as\-is, regardless of whether
ENCRYPTED
or
UNENCRYPTED
is specified (since the system cannot decrypt the specified encrypted password string)\&. This allows reloading of encrypted passwords during dump/restore\&.
.sp
Note that older clients might lack support for the MD5 authentication mechanism that is needed to work with passwords that are stored encrypted\&.
.RE
.PP
VALID UNTIL \*(Aq\fItimestamp\fR\*(Aq
.RS 4
The
VALID UNTIL
clause sets a date and time after which the role\*(Aqs password is no longer valid\&. If this clause is omitted the password will be valid for all time\&.
.RE
.PP
IN ROLE \fIrole_name\fR
.RS 4
The
IN ROLE
clause lists one or more existing roles to which the new role will be immediately added as a new member\&. (Note that there is no option to add the new role as an administrator; use a separate
GRANT
command to do that\&.)
.RE
.PP
IN GROUP \fIrole_name\fR
.RS 4
IN GROUP
is an obsolete spelling of
IN ROLE\&.
.RE
.PP
ROLE \fIrole_name\fR
.RS 4
The
ROLE
clause lists one or more existing roles which are automatically added as members of the new role\&. (This in effect makes the new role a
\(lqgroup\(rq\&.)
.RE
.PP
ADMIN \fIrole_name\fR
.RS 4
The
ADMIN
clause is like
ROLE, but the named roles are added to the new role
WITH ADMIN OPTION, giving them the right to grant membership in this role to others\&.
.RE
.PP
USER \fIrole_name\fR
.RS 4
The
USER
clause is an obsolete spelling of the
ROLE
clause\&.
.RE
.PP
SYSID \fIuid\fR
.RS 4
The
SYSID
clause is ignored, but is accepted for backwards compatibility\&.
.RE
.SH "NOTES"
.PP
Use
ALTER ROLE (\fBALTER_ROLE\fR(7))
to change the attributes of a role, and
DROP ROLE (\fBDROP_ROLE\fR(7))
to remove a role\&. All the attributes specified by
CREATE ROLE
can be modified by later
ALTER ROLE
commands\&.
.PP
The preferred way to add and remove members of roles that are being used as groups is to use
\fBGRANT\fR(7)
and
\fBREVOKE\fR(7)\&.
.PP
The
VALID UNTIL
clause defines an expiration time for a password only, not for the role
per se\&. In particular, the expiration time is not enforced when logging in using a non\-password\-based authentication method\&.
.PP
The
INHERIT
attribute governs inheritance of grantable privileges (that is, access privileges for database objects and role memberships)\&. It does not apply to the special role attributes set by
CREATE ROLE
and
ALTER ROLE\&. For example, being a member of a role with
CREATEDB
privilege does not immediately grant the ability to create databases, even if
INHERIT
is set; it would be necessary to become that role via
SET ROLE (\fBSET_ROLE\fR(7))
before creating a database\&.
.PP
The
INHERIT
attribute is the default for reasons of backwards compatibility: in prior releases of
PostgreSQL, users always had access to all privileges of groups they were members of\&. However,
NOINHERIT
provides a closer match to the semantics specified in the SQL standard\&.
.PP
Be careful with the
CREATEROLE
privilege\&. There is no concept of inheritance for the privileges of a
CREATEROLE\-role\&. That means that even if a role does not have a certain privilege but is allowed to create other roles, it can easily create another role with different privileges than its own (except for creating roles with superuser privileges)\&. For example, if the role
\(lquser\(rq
has the
CREATEROLE
privilege but not the
CREATEDB
privilege, nonetheless it can create a new role with the
CREATEDB
privilege\&. Therefore, regard roles that have the
CREATEROLE
privilege as almost\-superuser\-roles\&.
.PP

PostgreSQL
includes a program
\fBcreateuser\fR(1)
that has the same functionality as
CREATE ROLE
(in fact, it calls this command) but can be run from the command shell\&.
.PP
The
CONNECTION LIMIT
option is only enforced approximately; if two new sessions start at about the same time when just one connection
\(lqslot\(rq
remains for the role, it is possible that both will fail\&. Also, the limit is never enforced for superusers\&.
.PP
Caution must be exercised when specifying an unencrypted password with this command\&. The password will be transmitted to the server in cleartext, and it might also be logged in the client\*(Aqs command history or the server log\&. The command
\fBcreateuser\fR(1), however, transmits the password encrypted\&. Also,
\fBpsql\fR(1)
contains a command
\epassword
that can be used to safely change the password later\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
Create a role that can log in, but don\*(Aqt give it a password:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE ROLE jonathan LOGIN;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Create a role with a password:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE USER davide WITH PASSWORD \*(Aqjw8s0F4\*(Aq;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
(CREATE USER
is the same as
CREATE ROLE
except that it implies
LOGIN\&.)
.PP
Create a role with a password that is valid until the end of 2004\&. After one second has ticked in 2005, the password is no longer valid\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE ROLE miriam WITH LOGIN PASSWORD \*(Aqjw8s0F4\*(Aq VALID UNTIL \*(Aq2005\-01\-01\*(Aq;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Create a role that can create databases and manage roles:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE ROLE admin WITH CREATEDB CREATEROLE;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
.PP
The
CREATE ROLE
statement is in the SQL standard, but the standard only requires the syntax
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
CREATE ROLE \fIname\fR [ WITH ADMIN \fIrole_name\fR ]
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp

Multiple initial administrators, and all the other options of
CREATE ROLE, are
PostgreSQL
extensions\&.
.PP
The SQL standard defines the concepts of users and roles, but it regards them as distinct concepts and leaves all commands defining users to be specified by each database implementation\&. In
PostgreSQL
we have chosen to unify users and roles into a single kind of entity\&. Roles therefore have many more optional attributes than they do in the standard\&.
.PP
The behavior specified by the SQL standard is most closely approximated by giving users the
NOINHERIT
attribute, while roles are given the
INHERIT
attribute\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
SET ROLE (\fBSET_ROLE\fR(7)), ALTER ROLE (\fBALTER_ROLE\fR(7)), DROP ROLE (\fBDROP_ROLE\fR(7)), \fBGRANT\fR(7), \fBREVOKE\fR(7), \fBcreateuser\fR(1)
